A trip from the past June 26-28 ,2009

[Norm L.]

This is the anniversary of the first meeting of the fleet of Black Watch owners. It was held at Lake Hefner Marina on Lake Hefner Oklahoma City.
I don't have my diary with me so I'll give what I remember.
It was well organized by a great guy whose name won't come back to me. Forgive me for that. There were 5 or 6 Black Watch cutters, that great looking boat from Blue Water Boat Works in Amarillo, Texas. Who would have thought that such a salty boat would come from the Texas Panhandle? Dave Autry did, with no blue water for many miles.


These boats were built from 1976 to 1981. I saw my first one about that time. It was at the New Orleans Boat show, back in the days when there were still sailboats at shows. It was love at first site but with kids on the payroll a $5000 sailboat was not an option if I wanted to stay married. So it went on the sailboat bucket list.

At the meet there were 4 or 5 boats with 4 in the water and one that stayed on the trailer. I didn't bring KITTYHAWK as it was kept in a slip and the car probably could have hauled it. When I bought the boat it was on a trailer and the boats main refurbishment (it was rough) was done on the trailer at Steve Haines boat yard in Panama City. It was safely delivered to a boat yard in Madisonville (where the Madisonville Wooded Boat show is held) but once I got a good look at the trailer with the boat off I wondered why the trailer hadn't cratered leaving the boat sliding down I-10 at 60 mph.

We had a great time in OK City even with the weather in the mid 90's

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During this time we also spent some time with Travis Votaw.

The highlight of the gathering was the photo album of the guy who sailed his Black Watch across the straights to  Cuba. He said he had a great time there with no political repercussions from either side. 

KITTYHAWK was the last Black Watch built and the only one that was not the standard cutter but a gaff rig cat boat. Autry custom built it for a doctor from somewhere in the west. I had always wanted a cat boat and I did learn about the cat boat mantra, Reef Early. I remember a New Years Day sail when I was very over powered and over puckered. A sudden lull in the gusts allowed a tack and to head up before I ran into the shallows. I guess I had enough chips in Vigor's Black Box.

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[Captain Kidd]

Great to remember these kinds of events.

The Black Watch has, to my eyes anyway, unique lines.

Curious: wonder where the name Black Watch came from?

Thanks for the look at the past. (seems to be more of that as of late)

[Norm L.]

Autrey is originally a Scots name. The Black Watch is a regiment organized in 1700's Scotland as one of several "watches" to deal with the aftermath of the Jacobite Rebellion to deal with the bad guys. In those days who was a bad guy was pretty loose. The source of the Black part is unknown. One idea is that it was from their very dark blue and green tartan. Another opinion was that the name came from the color of their hearts as they were reported to be "heavy handed" with bad guys.

The Black Watch still exists and fought in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan.

So I would guess that the boat was named by Autry for an historic and proud military group (maybe not so proud in the 1700's) from his family homeland.

[Captain Kidd]

Wow! That's quite the namesake!